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Which might seem a little strange, given three years have passed and all. But to explain:

A little over three years ago is when I first started the blog, but a little before that is when the original Bottled Smoke festival occurred at the Echo Curio (plus a side visit over to Mr. T’s in the Valley). It was also before I was on Twitter, before I could have even purchased an iPhone and might have even been before I was on Facebook, not entirely sure now. Everything really does blur up and blur together. In any event, for all these reasons I didn’t and couldn’t talk about that get-together the same way I’ve talked about the On Lands, the last Terrastock and so forth — this recognition of how things really have radically changed for me and a lot of others may be a little long in coming but there you go.

I was, however, happily on Flickr at the time and had been for two years, so I took a lot of photos of the event. I also wrote a review of it after the fact for Plan B online but I guess it’s not around anymore, though maybe I’m just looking in the wrong spots. It wasn’t until a couple of months ago, though, in the midst of one of my periodic scrounges through (and clearing out) of old papers that I realized I had scribbled down a series of notes on a number of the performances.

These were essentially Twitter posts avant la lettre, really, or I could have seen myself posting them as such. Quick impressions, often hopelessly insular. I don’t really recall using any of these for the article but I could be wrong — I think I had some vague idea I was going to write something up for an ILM posting or similar.

Since I have a bit of time this week I figured I’d go ahead and create what would have been the kind of retrospective photo/’Twitter’ overview of the festival had all the factors I mentioned above been applicable back in May 2007. A random exercise, perhaps, but that way it’s all preserved a little more clearly. I think after having seen both the second Bottled Smoke earlier this year as well as On Land just the other week, both of which featured a number of acts who I saw for the first time at the original Bottled Smoke, it’s nice to look back a bit.

I’ll also preface this by saying that I cannot find notes for all the acts (apologies to Xela in particular!) and that there were a few performers I didn’t see at the time — friend JBR was having a small housewarming party down the road a bit so I cut out briefly for that — but it’s still pretty complete for what it is. Hope everyone enjoys!

Ilyas Ahmed — “…starts very gently, contemplative melody. Lovely. Effortless filigrees…Just sound, into an extended flow. Shifts regularly but (something unreadable) a new beauty. Like, in fact, a great dance or hip hop mix. New elements each time…His singing initially a lost ghost amid the whoosh of Sunset Blvd. traffic…A capella back into a stately descending melody. Perfect mix/control w/r/t vocal/guitar blend. Second piece more ‘conventional’ but still striking…very delicate. Third (song) for bro/mom. How nervous his fingers are!…Sudden big keen — amazing.”

Thousands — “…echoed slow build, vocal moan, a bit more jammy/twangy, but that makes for actual riffage, plus drum rolls…propulsive, in a way few of the acts have yet been…lots of murk, angst, groove…nice theatricality up front…some instrument switching for variety into soft freefloat loveliness, nice shift!…more chaotic calm exploration from there…short drone/howl to conclude.”

Valet — “…vocal selection/drone, but more layered/echo…Fursaxaish, but not exactly…Arcanta, kinda…then down into guitar sustain/note…echoing flow…then almost nothing…it’s a neat change from the thick overflow…traffic and gentle strum/zone…you can hear the click of the pedals! soloing over calm loop…back to vocal…more unsettled/tense then flows into beginning-style…and dive!”

Theo Angell — “…soundcheck? is its own performance, strum/clang/sing…mike on case?…into joint chord/jam flow…nice shifts in/out, sometimes Theo solo…Ilyas Ahmed waits at points (unintentional?)…very clean, no Ilyas pedals, a couple for Theo…like a barbed-wire hoedown at one point! if only briefly…grinding noise jam right after gentler plucking, sudden (unreadable) charge, both singing…Cat on suitcase!…second song more focused but just…conch shell! conch jam with Tim, very strange/wonderful…drumming in the sideroom…”

Le Révélateur — “Very serene start here especially with the projections, but with some faster spacerock bits…Some expected comparison points but done nicely — Harmonia, Gottsching, agog 70s electronics…Sound now starting to get very harshly pretty, rougher distorted edges coming out more. Good way to start the whole evening…Am also liking the shift to proto-Tron graphics as a bass loop begins. Very busy Tangerine Dream/Ash Ra arrangements now, but it also has something distinct to it. Hard to put my finger on…And over…but it turns out there’s another piece! A nice surprise, I’m used to set-long pieces at this stage. More treble now.”

Metal Rouge — “…soundchecking. It’s already ridiculously loud in the best way (those drums alone!)…Actual set starting off calmly, Andrew and Helga’s guitars in dank and beautiful interplay, Caitlin’s drums starting to rumble up…Helga’s vocals now starting as a new guitar line appears — this is one of the most entrancing times I’ve seen them yet. It’s slow burn but always focused rock epic buildup in their own vein, a nice equivalent to the previous performance…This is really turning spectacular now. A clear highlight of the whole festival. Arcing off into even more huge spacebound blasts. Every couple of minutes something new and bigger kicks in while the beat continues and ramps up. This is Neu! “Lila Engel” level…Only now shifting into the more freeform feedback/wail/drum clatter I’d expect from them but here it feels like exultant release.”

Grasslung — “…now kicking in — the drones are loud, deep and duly ominous, therefore perfect. Much less busy than the previous acts but builds well, understated melodic tones, shifts to bigger/louder keyboard roars…Starting to really get mind-meltingly huge, in a weird way it almost synthesizes the previous two sets, electronic epic progression…Huge crackling in the monitors now. Happily it is intentional, and controllable.”

Date Palms — “besides Mari and Gregg K there’s “trevor montgomery on bass and michael elrod on tanpura.” I’ve seen Marielle and Gregg separately now so seeing them together = should be really great…Tanpura setting an initial rhythm followed by the bass as Marielle and Gregg kick in. She’s on violin, he’s got nefarious devices…Performance is very deliberate and measured, setting a calm tone blending old and new discreetly. Gregg K’s work is the subtlest…After a pause into a new song sans Elrod. Gregg’s got a couple of stringed instruments hooked up to the gear and both are kicking in…The slow deliberation continues — I like it quite a bit, the performance clearly aims for a steady, unhurried control…Lovely blending of Gregg’s drones and Mari’s violin parts now. A free-floating haze, suddenly punctuated by bass…A quickening of pace, a slow pulling back to a new swirling Gregg K drone part, some of Mari’s violin returns.”

Xela/Zelienople — “…as I suggested, Xela takes the stage in his contemporary Iron Maiden shirt. Good man…Should also say that Zelienople has been soundchecking as well — hmm, epic jam session?…And as Jefre has announced, Mike from Zelienople will back Xela, who in turn will join Zelienople without a break between sets. Nice!…So John begins with various low tones while some fucked up Crusader horror movie clip runs. Of course! Movie apparently called The Blind Dead, Spanish film. Seems about right. Mike now adding cymbal parts to the echoed tones…

…Xela’s got a central whooshing/rising tone loop, heavily echoed, that he’s manipulating as he goes. The film gets trashier. Spanish muttonchop man with big polkadotted bathing towel + this performance = already a show for the ages…Xela now adding treble-pitched vocal parts, also heavily treated. Ghosts in caverns plus strange machinery. The film has meanwhile become a train set exploration of swarthy men and seventies backpackers with convent school visions…Mike now full out on drums, Xela’s mix an increasing electronic howl. Music builds to a climax and then zones out further, new windhowls entering. Film has actress wandering around evil ruins. Mike laying down a slow, steady beat, John again singing, female film character settling in for a night’s haunting…

…The rest of Zelienople now takes the stage as Xela cuts back to a crumbling flow of sound. Guitars start to ease in over it. All very gazey at the start for Zelionople, works for me! Not just that sonic quality to be sure — good use of space and mood setting, sudden changes in volume, drum parts setting pace…Film still going BTW — thank you black ashened ghosts on horses. Music now making me think of early Codeine a bit. The contrast of the moody music and singing and the film is even more o_0 now. Xela adding vocals…Movie just shifted from slow motion horseback chases by ghosts to smoothies at a coastal resort. The song then ends…And into a new one, more of a big epic sound, while green leisure suited men argue on screen. This really is a wonderful set…Spanish actors in green and orange argue in ruins near a bloody body while the musicians play on. Do they know?…Music = a big if still melancholy chug and blast. Movie = sleazy mustachioed men with seventies haircuts. Oh and more bodies…New song now. Zelienople being the most traditional rock band on the bill serves them as they still fit into the On Land aesthetic of drone. But for them it’s more implied in the slow burn of the performance and the crushing volume. (Film: mannequins, sleazos, blood.)…And a new twist in the film, we got zombies killing men playing with frogs! Music: feedback zone gone beautiful…Film now featuring cameo by the young Leon Trotsky. Xela adding in vocal textures, Zelienople creating beautiful rumble…And into a quieter arrangement while a zombie kills a redhead in a mannequin warehouse. This all makes sense in a dreamworld. No I take it back, it’s the zombie getting killed. These details are important. Song: a lovely, mournful piece…Skronky guitar heroics while the Spanish Michael Landon confronts the Spanish Sonny Bono. Let there be rock! Big blasting grind and stomp now, another Pink Floyd tribute in a way but now circa 1979. The movie is now indescribable…Xela confirmed after the set that the movie was his choice. He wanted something ‘macabre yet mundane.'”

The Alps — “And with a Johnny Rotten quote from Jefre, into the Alps set to close out the evening…As suits the backing films of sunrises and slow dawns, a very gentle, nicely mysterious start, tanpura, guitars and more…Big shift via bass then drums into a blasting rumble, feedback on high, while background zoneout continues…Extended drones while something gets talked out among the band, then Jefre returns to acoustic guitar and things get blissed again. And the gong now gets played! But not in a loud way, more understated reverberation with the keyboard drones. Jefre back to electric…Okay, gong parts now much louder! But fitting the bigger, fraying edges of the performance now…Arrangement now focused on tanpura again, calming down again for the moment though the bass just kicked in again…Building to a big ending, a pause, cutting back to bass, then a nicely monstrous, majestic arrangement. Bardo Pond would approve.”

As anybody who follows my Twitter feed probably knows all too well, I was up in SF for a few days just now — something I always like to do every so often so I can visit my sis, but also because on that particular weekend the On Land Festival was being held. Started by the good folks behind the Root Strata label, it’s one of any number of festivals and get-togethers this decade inspired by the example of such gatherings as the Terrastocks over the years, in case revolving around the label roster thanks to the many enjoyable acts that have put out releases on it.

I have to say — as I told Jefre of Root Strata directly at some point, I think — that for many reasons this was one of the best such events I’ve yet attended. I think it was down to a combination of things — a good location to start with in the center of the city (literally all I had to do was walk a couple of blocks to catch a tram back to my sis’s after each day ended), wonderful venues in both the Cafe du Nord and especially the Swedish American Hall (most of the festival took place there and the sound throughout was top-notch), enthusiastic support from all involved, good crowd and in the end a really, really sharp collection of bands that played one excellent set after another.

As I put it in one tweet a few bands in, “key hallmark of the festival so far = variety. It is not simply a ‘drone’ festival, each act has a distinct sound.” And that IS key — you could easily sense the throughline on each act, why they released something on Root Strata and why they were at the festival, but while that sense of something overwhelming and awe-inspiring held sway each time, the resultant range is the true measure of success for both label and festival. I had intentionally held back from listening to any of the bands I wasn’t familiar with already prior to the festival, because I just wanted to experience it completely fresh — very glad I did so, it often meant not merely surprises but truly pleasant ones.

Root Strata’s blog has two sets of photos up from the festival here and here, check ’em both out, along with this clip of the mesmerizing performance by Sun Circle. I’m sure there are many other things out there too, I’ll have to look around a bit!

My own series of photos can be viewed here. For the remainder of this entry, I’m going to pull together the various thoughts via Twitter I had for each performance, plus a link to the band’s site and a representative photo — and please keep in mind a number of acts performed in little or no light at all! Very intentionally. Enjoy, and by all means check out all the artists’ work and support them as you can — as well as the Root Strata label in general via their catalog.

Thanks again to Jefre and Maxwell of Root Strata for pulling it all together — see you next year!

—

Danny Paul Grody: “…starting the festival with gentle, slow guitar moodouts, then further shifting to keyboards, then acoustic guitar, a gently flowing collage. By adding wordless vocal keening to the layers of sound, the feeling is of a calmer White Rainbow set.”

John Davis: “…with help from Maxwell of Root Strata. Davis opening on electric guitar, Maxwell on koto (I think). Elegant melancholic drone from the start. The koto textures the deep drone, which in addition to the landscape film projection is pure slow sunrise beauty….John Davis set just wrapped up on a note of perfect serenity.”

Jim Haynes: “…now on stage with a tableful of nefarious devices. A good start….The combination of mixers, pedals, Haynes bowing something and more suggests a lost spaceship, a damaged hulk….Haynes also using acoustic elements well — rhythms and scrapes in a bowl adding a literal crumbling.”

Darwinsbitch: “…deep oscillating drones, electronic violin at a high pitch. Compelling! The combination of the violin’s odd modalities and the vast moaning drone is near Köner-levels of awe. The addition of a slow rising melodic motif put this set at the top of the heap. Stellar.”

Metal Rouge: “…focused facing their amps, creating arrhythmic scrabble and drone chaos….their more Sonic Youth/Dead C style playing here is a nice contrast to what has happened so far without disrupting it — again, showing what ‘drone’ can actually encompass. Also, swapping from drums to trombone = nice touch!….And they even ended on a drum solo because why not!”

William Fowler Collins: “…now starting with a big ol’ blast of feedback — that was more a soundcheck — now playing to film accompaniment of water/bubbles. Suggestions of an Old West in the shadow of electricity, twang lost in echo and drift, dark roars….A screech of wires across a night desert, looming power terminals over blasted sand. Majestic.”

Starving Weirdos: “Unlike at Bottling Smoke, this time there’s light onstage….Set up reminds me of early Pelt but sound is more of a mix of echoed howl, mixing murk, chimes, unease. Perhaps the most theatrical show, sonically if not visually.”

Operative/Scott Goodman: “Pure sine wave oscillation madness so far. The equivalent of liquid chalkboard scraping….Okay now that the full drumming is kicking in it makes more sense — New Wave Lightning Bolt, kinda. Suggestions of Suicide, DAF, Trans Am, Mouse on Mars — aggroelectro. Yet still droney!”

Joe Grimm: “…now starting, with his film/audio setup on the floor, projecting to the stage….The most minimal of the shows so far — Grimm avoids expected stage presence and projects blank white, letting the flicker of the two beams match the buzzing hissing insect drones he creates, a thousand angry bugs. The constant changes in screen flicker suggest ghost images, all while the drones get angrier and louder.”

Pete Swanson: “Saw Yellow Swans once, will be interesting to see the difference….has guitar and mike ready but so far it’s rumbling craggy drone….I’d say this was the most shoegaze set yet, but of the cryptic aggro version — FSA at its most unhinged. Shifting to classic guitar/buried sing scream style now, fighting through waves and waves of sound.” (I randomly mentioned this comparison to Pete later and he suggested more of a Gate sound, which makes PERFECT sense.)

Ducktails: “…a guy, a guitar and a lot of gear, plus bright lights. And twinkly keyboards….it’s all rather sparkly somehow….Okay and the sample swirl explains the Hawaiian references — like a lazier Avalanches, not without charm. This might be the first performer ever who takes percussive inspiration from Tones on Tail’s “Slender Fungus.”

The Alps: “…after a slightly rushed soundcheck, the Alps are good to go. The first ‘traditional’ rock band lineup of the day, but aiming for mantras in a Spiritualized sense in part….Also exploring open zone freakouts, Stooges/Can steady builders, an effective tour of styles.”

Keith Fullerton Whitman: “Keith Fullerton Whitman has plugged in his box of mystery wires and we’re off and running. And I’m definitely not kidding about the box….Whitman uses/abuses electronics to make them both uglier and prettier, a simultaneous reworking. The pulses, abbreviated melodies, loops and underscoring crushing collapse just screams tension. One senses Whitman is willfully unsure what the machines will do, testing to see what happens.”

[Tarentel was next and closed out the first night, and by all accounts slew. But I was wiped! Had to cut out early and recuperate — I’ve been lucky enough to see them before so I knew they would rule and I regret having to duck out. Next time!]

Brendan Murray: “As the photo sorta shows, this is another set where films are key, with Murray behind his computer. Murray’s work is a kind of classic drone, overlapping tones and rhythms as deep, strange contemplation. The choice of film projections — insects, water, plants — is actually more soothing than the music!”

Common Eider, King Eider: “…a duo, with one on two guitars and violin and another just guitar. Very contemplative, calm Charalambides style to start, but tension builds….Should also say there’s a third member, a pianist off to the side hidden by amps a bit. The combination is ultimately familiar but still striking, forlorn voices and notes in suspension.”

Sun Circle: “Sun Circle begin with low light and hand percussion, plus mixers….It’s a lovely way to suggest ‘wrong’ elements (drum circles, new age spirituality) via a different context. Meanwhile, slow building feedback murmur textures and starts to override the performance as viewed/interpreted.”

Barn Owl: “Flying Vs and guitars with bows. It’ll be bemusing, whatever is about to happen….Yet the result is calm and contemplative, both guitars bowed while films again play. As ever, by forcing the eye away from the band, the result is strange disconnect, an actual film soundtrack even when, as now, the duo now play guitar directly, a dreamy slow spiral down akin to Isis or Jesu, or even Sunn0))) at a stretch, but cleaner and less obviously metal or shoegaze, if you like….Even now, moving fully toward full drone howl, it’s a feeling of black walls of sound, performance hidden away.”

Ilyas Ahmed: “Ilyas fronting a trio lineup. With Honey Owens of Valet on guitar and Jed from Heavy Winged on drums, it’s a nice switch from Ilyas’s solo approach….There were rumors of Doors-like rock sleaze for this set — no leather pants yet….The feeling so far is of Ilyas at his most serenely unsettled — spikes and starts behind an air of calm. His keening vocals here feel more lost in the music as a result, a sinking anchor into bubbling water….The shift to full improvisation makes sense, given his affinity for and knowledge of many musical approaches.”

Christina Carter: “Her ever-powerful, wordless wails are as stunning as when I first heard them ten years back, plus having seen Joan La Barbara in her company the other day, her approach has a greater context for me, less rhythmic but more free and swooping, yet equally yearning to reach beyond linguistic traps which, matched by her shards of reverb country guitar, relentlessly suggest fracture and refraction.”

Grouper: “Grouper now starts, her own vocal keening and guitar approach complemented by a slew of pedals and films….By playing her initial parts as samples, she moves the focus from direct performance to direct manipulation, her individual parts of playing become redone elements in flowing evolution….By contrasting Christina Carter’s immediate performance with Grouper’s, the festival rightly concludes with an extension of the themes of like/unlike — common elements but individual approaches, set for set….The return to vocal/guitar now complements the samples in turn, working them back into a slow, depthless riff, another demonstration of Grouper’s ability to know the difference between homage and invention in that this does not reconstruct shoegaze, sampling, loops etc but aims for a shifting new synthesis….The silent presence of the audience has never felt so strong before now. It seems fitting to end the festival thus. It is also is fitting to end with a rich sound, feedback and delay plunging down and down, perfectly suiting the dark black water of the film, light sparkling on the edges, framing the full depths. A triumph of art.”